September 11, 2015
Not one acre more of Maori land march remembered.
It's 40 years since the Maori land march set off from Te Hapua.
The handful of people who left the far north settlement with founding president of the Maori Womens Welfare League Whina Cooper, had swelled to thousands more by the time the hikoi reached parliament more than a month later.
They carried with them a petition signed by 60000 people demanding no more alienation of Maori land.
Some of those who were on the march will gather at Aucklands Te Unga Waka marae on Sunday afternoon.
Phyllis Pomare says they have some taonga from that time.
" They will be led by the original pou that was carried over that harbour bridge and I think that's very very significant. We'll be joined by matua Joe Hawke, he was the one that led us over the harbour bridge 40 years ago" says Phyllis Pomare.
And as some of the original participants of the 1975 Land March remember the hikoi of 40 years ago, one of the country’s largest law firms has come to the party.
Buddle Finlay is offering a commemorative scholarship for a third or fourth year Maori law student, including not only tuition fees but a position in its summer clerk programme.
The scholarship recipient will be chose by representatives from Te Hiku iwi and Buddle Findlay, and the firm has committed to it for at least five years.
Treaty Negotiations Minister Christopher Finlayson welcomed the gesture.
He says the 1975 land march began a process that changed the way the nation viewed its past and, in particular, the Crown’s breaches of the promises it made when it signed the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840.
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